the Passing of Ven Bhiksuni Karuna Dharma this Morning

[Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni]

Dear Venerables & Friends, 

I received the news a few minutes ago that Ven Karuna Dharma passed away this morning and thought you would like to know.  I feel she was truly one of the great and courageous ones among us, and celebrate all the goodness of her life and practice.  

I'm glad i had a chance to see and spend precious time with her both earlier in our lives, and recently.  I wrote after visiting her in hospice, "when i visited her she was having trouble remembering one of her daughter's names, and she didn't remember mine, although she clearly knew who we both were!  [Despite being in a wheelchair], she seemed clear, bright, lucid, happy and at ease with the conditions of the body, place, family and all as they are and were. Her Dhamma shone clear in this in a way that i found truly admirable.".  As Ayya Anandabodhi also wrote, "despite the dementia, her citta [heart-mind] was kind and bright".

In compassion,

Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni

 --

S/he who abides in metta,

highly attentive to the teaching of the Buddha,

realizes the Peaceful,

unconditional happiness.

-- the Buddha, Dhammapada 368

On Wed, Nov 13, 2013 at 8:59 PM, Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni <tatha...@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear friends, 

Yesterday i received word that one of the great women in my life, the venerable bhiksuni Karuna Dharma, has entered into hospice care.  

It was suggested that it would be good for me to write something, in case someone reading would wish to know this news now.

photo courtesy Tricylce The Buddhist Review

Venerable Karuna Dharma is one of the early greats of American Buddhism.  She began to study Buddhism when i was just a year old, and was the first American woman to be ordained a bhikkhuni/bhiksuni in the United States in 1976. She was a co-founder of the International Buddhist Meditation Center in Los Angeles and the College of Oriental Studies, a founding president of the Sakyadhita International Buddhist Women's Organization, and one of the co-founders of Inter-religious Dialogue in Los Angeles.  She served as past president of the American Buddhist Congress, and since 1980 until recently served as the abbess of the International Buddhist Meditation Center. 

  

 with fellow Dharma Grandmother Buddhist teacher Ruth Denison  

 

with bhiksuni founders of Sakyadhita International

While abbess, she also served repeatedly as a bhikkhuni preceptor and advocate, helping to enable the full ordination of many women in the Tibetan and Theravada traditions where the tradition of full ordination for women either lapsed or was never established. It was in that role that i came to know her, as she supported, co-sponsored and arranged for my own full ordination as a bhikkhuni in 1997, in her 20th year of monastic life.  I hope to never forget the great dedication and determination with which she offered this tremendous service to the Sangha, in my case, even shortly after having had a stroke, when half her body was affected by paralysis, and she could only walk and speak with difficulty.  This was truly amazing.  I am blessed to have had the privilege to attend and assist her in whatever small ways i could during the month we spent together while i was training and preparing before my full ordination.  

 

  

serving as preceptor together with the late venerable Havenpola Ratanasara Mahathero (my preceptor)

images courtesy of International Buddhist Meditation Center

Now, she is a Grandmother in the Sasana.  Those she supported for ordination have gone on to support others, here with Dhammadharini, in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Germany. 

       

her Sasana daughters and grandaughters in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, and USA

I will be travelling tomorrow to visit her in hospice, as i've been told it is better to come sooner.  Please do send your good wishes and thoughts of blessing with me.  I go with very much gratitude and great loving appreciation. 

Last, i share with you this image of the blessed Buddha's own offering of hospice care.  When i searched for "karuna dharma" on Google, it was one of the images that appeared, and seems most appropriate.

In tribute to the Dhamma of Compassion,

Tathaaloka Bhikkhuni

--

Karuna sahagatena cetassa

Compassion going out to the entire world... 

Dukkha pata ca ni dukkha...

May those in suffering be free from suffering,

May those in fear be free from fear,

May those in sorrow be free from sorrow,

And so too may all be

 .

 

Sabbe satta sabba dukkha pamuccantu.

May all beings be released from all suffering.